


Bloodlust-A MBAV Fanfiction

by orphan_account



Category: My Babysitter's A Vampire
Genre: Abuse, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bisexual Benny, Bisexual Ethan, Bullying, Cheating, Dark Magic, Depressed Rory, F/F, F/M, Fight Scenes, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Jesse/Rory for 2 seconds, M/M, Magic, Making out gets heated, Original Wiccan Characters, Past Abuse, Past Relationship(s), Redemption, Starvation, Typical Teenager Shit, Weekly Updates, dumb lesbians, nothing really happens tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 19,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24952000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It starts as the normal MBAV movie but then 2 new characters come in and change everything.Most or all English spells are not ours or are based on something else.Beta read by @yourfavhufflepuff (Instagram)Weekly updates!
Relationships: Benny Weir/OFC, Ethan Morgan/OMC, Sarah Fox/Erica Jones
Comments: 22
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1: Rated G

Ethan’s PoV

Benny and I sat at my dining room table. 

“Look at all this,” I exclaimed, setting some ice cream and toppings down. Benny had spent a good half of his savings to help pay for everything for tonight. “What’d you do, rob an ice cream truck or something?”

Benny set the rest of the treats down on the table. He stated, “Tomorrow, we officially join the high school brotherhood. We are men. We must mark this moment.”

If I weren’t so smiley, I would’ve rolled my eyes. “Let’s make it the sundae to end all sundaes.” I picked up the sprinkles. “Remember grade five when you put a hundred seventy-six of these in your mouth?”

Benny nodded, “Yeah, but it was one-eighty-six.”

I scoffed, “No way. I did one-sixty-two, you did one-seventy-six.”

“You barely hit one-fifty,” Benny interrupted.

I rolled my eyes and smiled at him. He was so adorable and I was really lucky to have him as a friend. Even after how things went down.

He smiled back for a second, then lunged for the sprinkles. He said, “I got it!”

I pulled them away. “Mine!”

We wrestled for a bit before he snatched the sprinkles from me and started stuffing them into his mouth. 

“Hey,” I shouted. “Remember to count them!” I started shoving sprinkles in my mouth trying to catch up with Benny. I thought I heard Jane’s voice but I chose to ignore it. It probably wasn’t important. I shoved more sprinkles in my mouth.

Benny tried to talk but it was pretty muffled. “Okai I fink we-uh tied.”

I simply stated, “No,” and tried to find room for more sprinkles.

Benny laughed and sprinkles spewed out of his mouth. I tried to hold it in as long as I could but it was so funny that I laughed and sprinkles flew out of my mouth and some from my nose. Benny and I both laughed so hard that we fell out of our chairs and I landed on top of him. He grunted and continued laughing while I lay on him just smiling. I raised my head so that I could talk to him. “I’m really glad things aren’t awkward between us,” I sighed.

He petted my hair and mumbled, “Me too.” He petted me for a while before he decided that it was time to clean up the sprinkles. Just as we had finished, we heard a scream and a car pull into the driveway.

“Ethan!” My mom screamed and I raced outside to see my parents consoling Jane. Benny ran out after me, his mouth full of marshmallows. 

“Hey,” I said. “You’re home early. How was date night?”

I’ll save you some pain and summarize. My parents decided that I needed a babysitter and that Benny could still come over as long as the babysitter or my parents were there. The next day, I waited at my locker to tell Benny the situation. 

After I had finished explaining, Benny started to laugh. “Dude!” He cackled. “You need a babysitter?”

I quickly shushed him so the people around us wouldn’t hear. “Benny! Shut up.” The bell rang and we had to get to class. While I walked, I kept my head low in case anyone heard the conversation I just had with Benny. 

[A/N: I’m too lazy to write the rest of the school day so time for Sarah to show up at the house]

I walked toward the stairs and stopped when I saw Sarah standing at the bottom. I felt horrible for spilling food on her earlier today. When I found out that she was bleeding, I ran for bandages, changing into nicer clothes, then rushing back downstairs with the band-aids. “Here.” I handed her the box. She took it and smiled. I looked at my parents, who were about to leave. “So, Mom and Dad, How long will we need her here?” I asked, a little embarrassed to have a babysitter at the house. My parents liked to humiliate me to teach me a lesson, but at least this one was hot. 

There was a pounding at the door and Sarah frantically grabbed my mom’s umbrella and held it almost like a stake. Just then, Benny walked through the door talking about what snacks he brought.

Sarah turned to me. “Where’s your bathroom,” she asked. I pointed her in the right direction and thought back to the whole thing with the umbrella. 

_ Huh, _ I thought.  _ Weird. _


	2. Chapter 2: Rated T

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The OCs are introduced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spells are mixed Enochian and Latin. No translations but effects are pretty clear and immediate.

Keaton’s PoV

I hung upside down from a tree and watched Natalya create tiny sparks that danced across her fingers. Ms. Weir sat inside doing twins know what. Sure, it was the middle of the night but fun has no schedule.

I asked Natalya, “Truth or dare?”

She replied, “Dare. I’m not a pussy.”

I thought for a moment before an evil smirk spread across my face. “I dare you to step on a bug and then reanimate it.”

Natalya shrugged. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

I flashed her a shit-eating grin. “Right in front of Ms. Weir.”

Her caramel face turned pale. She yelled to me, “You know how she feels about necromancy! She’ll turn me blue or something for a week!”

I looked her in the eye pointedly. “Sounds to me like you are a pussy.”

She glared at me and crushed a beetle beneath her foot. She cupped it in her hands and I flipped myself down from the tree and followed her inside. We found the room Ms. Weir was sitting in watching a soap opera. Natalya stepped in front of the TV and closed her eyes. Ms.Weir’s eyes were fixed on Natalya’s hands.

Natalya took a deep breath and incanted,  _ “Adducere ge fructum malpirgi.”  _

Ms. Weir’s eyes widened and she stood up faster than possibly ever before. The beetle skittered out of Natalya's hand and down the vent. She looked up at Ms.Weir, then to me. “Are you happy now?” We giggled, walking out of the room and hoping Ms.Weir would forget about it the next time we saw her. We returned to our little spot by the trees and continued our game.

“Okay, Keaton. Your turn. Truth or dare?” Natalya was really bad at giving dares, but she wasn’t really good at truth questions either. I thought for a moment before ultimately deciding on Truth. She smiled. “Hm.” She took a while to think, now laying in the grass beside the tree.

After about a minute she sat up and looked my way. “Out of who we’ve seen so far in Whitechapel, Who would you most like to marry?” I had to laugh. 

“Marry?” I asked. We hadn’t lived here for long at all, so we didn’t know many of the people in Whitechapel. The only person I could really remember was the guy on the sidewalk I had seen pass the tree earlier. “Maybe that kid that walked by us?” 

Now she laughed. “Okay.”

“What should we do now?” I asked. Our game had been going on for quite a while.

She stood up, almost like she was waiting for me to ask. "Let's go for a walk. Maybe we'll see Ms. Weir's grandson that she always tells us about. He should be with a friend tonight."

I scoffed, “How do you know that?”

She shrugged. “When he’s not here eating Ms. Weir’s food and making us hide ‘until he’s ready,’ he’s normally at his friend’s house.”

I nodded my head in agreement and started heading inside to ask Ms. Weir if we could go and how to get there. She agreed and gave us directions so we could go see “Benny” because it was “time he knew the truth.”

We walked in relative silence until we saw a house with a pizza delivery car out front. We heard a door slam and heard screaming.

Natalya looked at me. “You know, we could just mind our business.” 

We heard a scream: “Benny!”

Natalya shook her head. “Well, fuck.”

We stopped to pray to our patrons. A bow of light appeared in my hand, a gift from Apollo and Artemis. Natalya had a sword, a gift from… well, herself. Her matron was the goddess Themis who didn’t do much in terms of weaponry.

We heard another scream and ran to the house just in time to see a pizza man with glowing eyes and fangs pull a fork from his skull. Benny and his friend backed away, but Natalya, the brown-haired girl, and I stayed to defend them. I aimed the bow in his direction, taking an arrow from the quiver that appeared with the bow. It all went pretty fast. Natalya pointed her sword at the man standing before them and the brown-haired girl growled, it seemed like she knew him, but I shook it off, ready to fire. I pulled back the string. 

The pizza man started charging at us, but we wouldn’t let him get to the girl or the two boys standing behind us. Natalya stood in front of them with her sword drawn while I shot an arrow at the man. He groaned but healed quickly. It was almost like magic. I had an idea. I pulled a sharp wooden arrow from the bag and released it toward him, and this time, the wound stayed. 

“What the fuck was that?” he screamed, we felt accomplished and the boys came out from behind Natalya. The pizza man growled and his gaze turned almost rabid.

The brown-haired girl ran up to him and said, “You missed.” She took the arrow out of him and moved it to his heart and jabbed it straight through. The pizza delivery guy screamed and dissolved into ash. 

Benny and his cute friend cheered. “Hell yeah! We just took out a vampire.” Then Benny turned to us. “Wait, who are you two? And why do you smell like my grandma’s house?”

I turned to Natalya and she nodded. I started to explain, “I’m Keaton and Natalya. We’re warlocks who are being trained by your grandma. We know your name because she told us, but we don’t know who these two are.”

Benny pointed to the cute boy on his left. “That’s Ethan. Sorry, but he’s a little freaked out.” Then the girl on his right. “This is Sarah, Ethan’s babysitter and she’s a vampire.”

Sarah hissed at us. Apparently, vampires can be territorial. We decided that we didn’t want to be vampire food so we made a silent agreement to erase their memories.

Natalya and I stood straight in front of Sarah and Ethan respectively. We both said in near unison. “We don’t want you to be upset. You don’t remember, you both forget.” We kissed their foreheads and they both blinked. I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t enjoy kissing Ethan’s head. He was adorable, what can I say?

Sarah looked at us. She asked, “When did you guys get here?”

Natalya chose to answer. “We’re friends of Benny’s.”

Ethan muttered, “No you’re not, you just said you’re…”

I twisted my foot and kicked him in the shin. I continued for Natalya, “We were actually just about to leave.” I hugged Benny. “See you later, man.” I whispered in his ear, “Come to your grandma’s house if you have any questions.” Then, Natalya and I walked out of the door.

We started walking back to Ms. Weir’s house. When I was sure we were out of sight of Ethan’s house, Natalya started talking. “So, Keaton. Elephant in the room. The boy that wasn’t Benny didn’t look like he was affected by our memory wipe. We gonna talk about that or…?”

I rolled my eyes. “His name is Ethan, headass.”

I could faintly make out Natalya smirking. “You only remember that because you thought he was cute.”

I punched her in the arm and responded to her earlier question, “I figured we’d just ask Ms. Weir then go out for pizza.”

Natalya grunted her agreement then started running. She yelled over her shoulder, “Race you there!”

I started running. “Hey! No fair!”

We walked into the main room of the house and saw Ms. Weir in the same place she was last time. We both stood in front of the TV and stared straight at her until she sighed and looked at us. 

I stepped closer to her. “There’s a problem. We tried to erase Ethan’s memory after helping them fight a vampire and it didn’t work. Why not?”

Ms. Weir tried to look past me. “He’s a seer. You can’t hide the truth from him. At least, not by means of magic. Now move, you’re blocking the screen.”

Natalya left the room but I stayed and thought about Ethan and how simply cool he was to me. I wanted to be his friend because he simply had a good vibe. I sat next to Ms. Weir.

“Um, Ms. Weir, I was wondering what school Benny goes to,” I asked nervously.

She smiled. “Whitechapel High School. Why?”

I fidgeted a little bit. “Well, Tally and I don’t really have many friends and we do need to get an education so I was wondering if you could maybe pretend to be our legal guardian and enroll us?”

Ms. Weir shrugged. “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

I smiled and thought of Ethan. He was really cute and I was excited to see him again.

“Awesome.”


	3. Chapter 3: Rated T

Benny’s PoV

Keaton and Natalya left the house after wiping Sarah’s memory and trying to wipe Ethan’s. I kept thinking of what Keaton said.  _ “Come to your grandma’s house if you have any questions.” _

I was confused, to say the least. Why would grandma know who and what they were? How did they know my grandma? I looked at Ethan and Sarah, who seemed almost unphased, maybe a little confused, too. I couldn’t blame them. Two strangers just walked in and claimed to know me, then ran out talking about my grandma’s house? I had to know. I knew Sarah wouldn’t care, because whatever they did to her seemed to work. Ethan though…

“Hey, uh, Ethan. I have to... go.” I walked toward the door, “I have to study... science test.” I chuckled, nervous, finally leaving. I had to get to my grandma’s house. I walked quickly through the night, determined to find out who Keaton and Natalya actually were. 

When I finally made it, the two were standing there in her front room while grandma watched T.V. on the couch. I walked in front of it, looking at grandma once again. Natalya was hitting Keaton and saying something about how he "only thinks with his dick" and how she didn't want to go to high school. 

“Hey! What’s the deal?” I gestured toward Natalya and her friend. “Who are they?”

Natalya flushed and waved nervously. Grandma kept watching her show

"These are my students Natalya and Keaton. I picked them up in Colorado when I noticed that they knew how to use an ancient form of magic," she calmly explained.

I sputtered, “An ancient form of magic? What does that even mean? And students, grandma. Why should I believe you?”

Natalya stepped forward and touched my head. Before I could react, she said, _ “Conisa eum ooaoana,”  _ and I felt myself being dragged out of my body. 

_ I saw myself in a house where both Keaton and Natalya sat in a circle on the floor with a bunch of random stuff around them. Candles, incense, open books, you name it. If it was witchy, they had it. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that they had different books open.  _

_ Keaton had two books open. One had a symbol of the Sun on the page and the other said “Artemis” at the top of the left page. _

_ Natalya only had one book, open to page one. It said in bold letters “Themis” with a picture of balanced scales. I thought back to my times playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends.  _

_ I thought to myself. _ They called themselves warlocks, so that means that they were studying their patrons. Unless they mean something else and D&D wasn’t correct or helpful…

_ I made a mental note to ask later. Keaton and Natalya closed their books, and everything went dark. _

_ Suddenly, I was outside of the house. My grandma stood in front of Keaton and Natalya who were both standing just outside of the door. My grandma was saying that I couldn’t make out. I stepped closer and was able to hear what she was saying. _

_ “...to Whitechapel with me. We can all teach each other. You both are very powerful. Please consider.” _

_ Grandma walked away and everything went dark again. _

I woke up in the guest room at my grandma’s house. Natalya was sitting at the foot of the bed. She looked at me. “I suppose you have some questions,” she said. I nodded.

I thought for a moment, there were so many questions I wanted to ask.“First, How do you know my grandma?” The longer I sat there staring, the more I noticed how pretty she was, I shook it off. 

“It’s... a long story.” She said, smiling awkwardly. It didn’t seem like she wanted to explain it so I left it at that, I would just ask later. 

The next question. “What were those books in that thing you showed me? Was it a D&D thing?"

Natalya laughed. “Actually, they're books about our patron gods. Our protectors.” I nodded, still fairly confused, but glad to have a better understanding. Then I remembered. That out-of-body thing that happened before I was knocked out, at least I think I was. The page with the balancing scales. What even was a patron god? What did it have to do with  _ Ancient Magic _ ? I moved closer to her, now across from her. 

“What’s a patron god?” I asked finally. 

“Like I said, It’s like a protector, they watch over you. Mine is Themis, goddess of law and balance.” She replied, leaning her head on her hand against the bed and looking up at me. It was like I was seeing her for the first time. She looked really cute and she was really nice. I could’ve kissed her right there and I almost did. We leaned in when we were interrupted by my grandma through the door. “Benny, could you come talk to me for a second?” I nodded and followed her out of the room. 

I sat on grandma’s couch and twiddled my thumbs. I looked up at her and she started to talk. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me.”

I shrugged. “Only one. Natalya answered most of them for me. Grandma, I was wondering if I have magic?”

Grandma smiled. “Yes, Benny, you do. You’re a spellmaster, inherited from me being an Earth Priestess. You have the ability to cast spells as long as you stay focused.”

I thought of my A.D.H.D. and how grandma said that I had to stay focused for spells.

_ Well, fuck. _


	4. Chapter 4: Rated T

Natalya’s PoV

Benny had just left the room with his grandma and my head was spinning. I had almost just kissed my teacher’s grandson. I have to admit that he was really cute, and funny, and adorably nerdy, but what would Ms. Weir think? The point of me being here was to focus on magic. Benny was just a distraction from the work. I stood up from the bed and walked to Keaton’s room.

Keaton was sitting on his bed looking for places to go get school supplies. We started tomorrow. I waved my hand in front of his face. When he looked up, I blurted, “I almost kissed Benny!”

Keaton was silent for about ten seconds. Then, he burst into laughter. He started rolling on his bed and pointing at me. I kicked him, which caused him to fall off of the bed, but he continued to laugh.

“Keaton,” I started. “This is serious. Benny’s just gonna be a distraction from learning magic.”

Keaton wiped away some tears and said, “Tally, you’re allowed to have a life outside of magic. We know plenty of spells and have the skills to even make some. I don’t understand what you’re worried about.”

I started, “Yeah, butー”

“Also,” Keaton interrupted, “he’s a spellmaster, meaning that if anything, he can help you train and vise versa. For someone who’s ‘not a pussy,’ you sure are acting like one.” He started to climb back onto the bed.

I rolled my eyes and whispered under my breath,  _ “Dobitza.”  _ Keaton fell back out of the bed and I flipped him off before leaving the room.

On the way back to my room, I noticed Benny about to leave. I took a calming breath and approached him.

“Hey, Benny. Where are you going,” I asked.

A blush spread across his face. “Oh, uh, I was about to go stop a vampire party.”

I raised my hand,  _ “Zacar Keaton adagita mihi.” _

Keaton floated over to me, still positioned as if he were in bed. Once he had moved to me, the spell ended and he dropped to the ground. I put my hand down and looked at Benny. “We’re coming,” I said. Benny shrugged and beckoned us to follow him out of the house. 

...

We arrived back at Ethan’s house and walked inside to see Ethan strapping various things such as cameras and microphones to his belt. Sarah walked by and threw some weapons in the car. I turned to see Keaton blushing and waving at Ethan. Ethan sheepishly looked away and waved back. I smiled at them and turned to Benny. “Come on,” I told him. “I have time to teach you one or two spells that can help with vampires.”

Benny followed me outside and I started to stack the trash cans in front of Ethan’s house. I turned to look at Benny. “I know you’re a spellmaster because your grandma is an Earth Priestess. I need to know how much I need to teach you right now. Tell me what you know vampires are weak to.”

I continued stacking trash cans while he started talking. “Well, I know that they die if you put a stake in their heart, crosses irritate them, they’re scared of fireー”

I stopped him as I finished stacking. “They’re not scared of little flames but large blazes can scare them off. That’s why I’m going to teach you a spell to make fire, and how to change the intensity. It’s a basic spell that doesn’t require much focus so it should be easy enough to learn.”

I stood behind him and grabbed his arm, which was suddenly really warm. I blushed a little bit but continued. “Now, you need to point your finger toward the trash cans and choose between these options: fire and arson.”

Benny pointed his finger and said, “Arson.”

I kept teaching. “I want you to think of a large fire. Maybe even to the extent of a burning building. Then I want you to say  _ ‘incendium.’ _ Make sure your finger stays in the same place because that’s how you aim.”

Benny closed his eyes and took a breath. He opened them.  _ “Incendium.” _

A bolt of fire shot from his finger and hit one of the trash cansー the one closest to himー and turned red hot before bursting into flames and lighting the surrounding grass on fire. I waved my hand.  _ “Eatenus exstinxisti.”  _ The grass smoldered before it stopped burning completely. 

Benny smiled, then started spewing nonsense. “I justー the fireー my fingerー  _ Incen _ ー _ ” _

I clamped his mouth shut. “Benny, you can’t just go around saying spells. You could burn the house down.” I looked him in the eyes while he blushed. I could feel my own face heating up. We both leaned forward and tilted our heads. “You’re kind of dumb.” I joked. “Let‘s get back inside, If you need to use fire, I’m glad you know how to now.” Benny smiled, I followed him back into Ethan’s house. 

He looked over at me, his smile still not faded. “Thanks for helping me out with that, Natalya. Maybe we can fight vampires together.” I laughed, pushing him in a playful way, and meeting the others on the other side of the front door. Benny looked over at them, he looked excited. “Who’s ready to fight some vamps?” He was such a geek. 

Sarah sat in the driver's seat. I had to assume that Keaton had filled her in without getting eaten.

I called shotgun and winked at Keaton. He looked confused, then horrified as Ethan slid into the middle seat and Keaton was forced to sit next to him. Benny slid into the seat behind me and we started driving. 

I kept my eyes on the rearview mirror as Keaton and Ethan both looked at each other, only to turn away blushing when they got caught. I smiled when the motion of the car put Keaton to sleep. We walked mostly everywhere in Whitechapel so this car ride was a relief on our legs. Keaton’s head lolled and fell on Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan tensed up but after some time, he relaxed and started to look sleepy too. I took out my phone and took a picture. Sarah looked in the rearview mirror, smiled, then looked at me knowingly.

We pulled up next to the house where the party was being held. Sarah, Ethan, and Benny made it clear that they would go find their friends and that we were leaving as soon as they did. Keaton and I were told to lay low and to be back at the car in an hour. 

Keaton and I snuck through the back and ended up in the pool area. We were almost immediately greeted with trouble. 

Four vampires stood in front of us, blocking our path into the house. The tallest of them stared us down. “What were you two doing,” he asked, obviously suspicious.

I took this one. “I was just about to drink his blood, heh.”

The same vampire waved his hand to us. “Go ahead, then. Do it. Make him one of us.”

I glanced around before I noticed a stick on the ground and got an idea. I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood and I grabbed Keaton’s hair. I pulled his head back and stepped on the stick so that a  _ crack _ could be heard. Then I took the blood that was in my mouth and kissed Keaton’s neck so that there was a healthy coating of blood. I pulled away and the vampires nodded their approval before they left.

Keaton turned to me and whispered,  _ “Sana.”  _ I felt the wound in my mouth close up and I was forced to swallow the blood so that the vampires would smell it on my breath. It was disgusting but it had to be done. We had to fit in so nobody would look our way while we fulfilled our mission. 

Once we were inside, We made our way to the two dumbass boys we were here to protect, who were surrounded by vampires  _ already _ . I could hear Keaton groaning, but of course, we rushed over to them. We couldn’t just leave them behind.

_ Especially not Benny. _

Keaton stood next to Ethan and bumped into him. Ethan’s eyes turned glassy and he looked like he was focusing on something a million miles away. Even the vampires looked confused, but just as soon as it started, it was over. Ethan whispered something to Keaton and they both nodded their heads.

Keaton turned to me. “Time,” he asked. 

I pulled out my phone and said, “Eleven fifteen. I nodded to Benny and said, “Now.”

Benny pointed at a vampire. It looked confused. I kicked Ethan and Keaton in the shins so that they would fall over, just as Benny said,  _ “Incendium.” _

The vampire he was pointing at, the same one who was suspicious of me earlier was hit by a bolt of fire and burst into flame, the fire licking the air wildly searching for something to burn. It caught onto the clothes of a second vampire, who eventually burned back to death.

“Close your eyes,” I told everyone. I had to focus to keep control of this spell so we could keep our cover while also getting rid of these vamps. I took a deep breath and focused on happy thoughts. Learning magic, meeting Keaton, almost kissing Benny. I only needed one word for the most difficult spell I had ever cast:  _ “Solis.” _

A ball resembling sunlight grew in my hand. I had to keep it under control or our cover would be blown. It likely already was from Benny’s magic so I had to make quick work. I willed the ball to stay in my grasp. This would be easier for Keaton. His patrons are the gods of the sun and moon. I opened my arms as wide as I could until a tiny (but not radiant) ball of sunlight was in my hands. No one would see it unless they were looking at us because it didn’t shine. I pressed it down into a cylindrical shape. The vampires didn’t know what was happening. They were too scared to stop it. I turned to my companions. “Everyone open your eyes. Keaton, make sure that your quiver has enough sun arrows.” As I finished talking, I finished molding the sunlight into a Sword of Sun. I took a deep breath, then cut off the head of the vampire standing closest to me. Keaton nocked an arrow made of sunlight and shot it from his bow, into the eye of a vampire standing right in front of him. The vampire shrieked and fell over. He likely wasn’t re-dead but Keaton may have hit his brain. The blood leaked from both of them until it conjoined in one pool at our feet.

I turned to Ethan. “Sorry.”

Ethan looked confused. “Sorry? For what?”

I didn’t want to be cliche and say, “For this,” so I simply ran my sword across his hand, drawing blood. I let it fall into the pool of blood at our feet. I whispered,  _ “Sana,” _ causing the wound in Ethan’s hand to close up. I gestured for everyone to run away from the pool of blood that was already attracting vampires to it. We stopped running. I was exhausted. I had used up all of my magic reserves. I pointed at a vampire that was trying to sneak up on us. I whispered one final spell,  _ “ _ _ Evanescet.”  _ The vampire  vanished in a puff of smoke.  Then, I passed out.


	5. Chapter 5: Rated T

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Panic attack, vampiric feeding, making out gets pretty heated, Jesse
> 
> S/O to MBAVFan66 for all of their nice comments :D

Rory’s PoV

I sat at the top of the stairs of the mansion with my head in my hands.

_What’s wrong with me? Why do I feel this way? I know I’m a fucking idiot and I’m a nerd and I can’t focus on shit. FUCK, WHY DO I HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS? Ethan and Benny said that I should leave. Maybe I should go._

I stood up just as Ethan and Benny raced up the stairs and saw me. I quickly wiped away my tears and forced a smile. “Hey, guys,” I began. “I’m glad you could make it!”

_Why, why,_ why _did you guys have to show up? Please, I can’t let you see me like this._

“Rory,” Ethan exclaimed. “We have to go.”

_Yeah, no shit._

Benny continued for him. “Rory, the people here are vampires.”

I looked into Ethan’s eyes and saw the reflection of someone I recognized from the drama club standing behind me.

_Fuck. Shit. Isn't this a motherー_

I felt a pair of long pointy teeth sink into my neck and I felt the bones in my neck break. I fell to the ground and began to seize violently until I stopped and took a breath. Ethan and Benny watched me in horror.

_Okay, ow, rude._

Benny pointed at the vampire and said some word that I had never heard before. A bolt of lightning or something shot from his finger and hit the vampire who was pushed back a little and caught fire. Was it magic? I don’t know. It didn’t seem real at all. Vampires? And I was at my first party. And Benny and Ethan might’ve seen me _crying._ I felt my breathing clear up, then become labored. I felt more tears prickling at my eyes.

_No, no, no, not now, not now._

I felt a panic attack begin to come on. I couldn’t let them see me. I ran. Everything was a blur. The door to leave, the street, and then I was home. I sat in my room, sobs shaking me. My head was buried in my hands. My vision was blurry from the tears. I took off my glasses and I was actually able to see better.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. And I just left my friends there to die. I’m such a shitty person. What did I do to deserve this? What do I do now?_

I didn’t know what to do. I just sat there on my bed, still shaking. Just as I finally laid down, and put my glasses on a side table, I heard a knock at my window. I sighed, sitting up. I smiled and waited for maybe Benny or Ethan to come inside, but it was a face I barely recognized, he was from the party. He was the one who bit me. He still smelled like smoke. When I saw him at the party, I didn’t realize how handsome he was. 

I sniffled. “Who are you,” I asked, curious as to why he showed up at my house in the first place. He didn’t answer for a minute, I watched his eyes wander around my room. I asked again, “What do you want?” 

The boy finally answered, smirking. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

_He bit me. Should I let him in? Maybe he can help me adapt to life as a vampire._

I weighed my choices before I nodded, and he joined me in the room. He sat criss-cross on my bed. “So, I need you to do something. It would help me out a lot.” He didn't seem to mind me crying.

_Will you marry me? I mean, do I trust you? What could I possibly do for him? Maybe I should start with his name…_

I couldn’t clear my head. My anxiety was only climbing. I considered all of my options until I looked at the boy with a pleading look. He nodded and ran out of the room. He ran with inhuman speed. When he got back, he handed me a glass of water.

_Why is he being so nice? I really need to calm down if I have a chance at figuring anything out._

I took some calming breaths and I heard him slow his breathing to match mine. He smiled at me and my stomach filled with butterflies. He wiped away the tears on my face and put my hand in his.

I asked him, “What’s your name?”

He smiled kindly at me. “I’m Jesse. You’re Rory, right?”

I nodded. We sat in awkward silence for a short while. I took in his features. He had a great jawline and was overall just cool.

“So,” I nearly whimpered. “What did you need help with?”

“Shh.” Jesse put a finger to my lips. “I can tell you later. Once you feel better.” He offered me another smile, and I felt more relaxed. Though I was still fairly confused as to why he showed up at my house, maybe he could help me out. I sipped from the water, staring up at him. He finally started to speak again. “I think I like you, Rory.” He stared, smiling. “I think that you’re nicer than... most people I’ve met.” I felt my face flush and looked away for a moment before meeting eyes with him once again. 

_How can I be sure he’s telling the truth?_

“Really?” I asked in sort of a skeptical tone. While he was gorgeous and he liked me, I still had to be cautious. He _bit_ me. That’s not something one can automatically excuse. Still, he was so kind, and he was attractive, so I ignored the red flags and continued talking to him. 

He nodded and squeezed my hand. “I really don’t want to lie to you because you deserve better than that. You’re a fledgling now, which is a cross between human and vampire. The thing is, you can’t stay a fledgling. If you don’t drink human blood soon, you’ll die, and I really don’t want that.”

_I didn’t plan on plot-twisting you but here we go, man._

I shifted uncomfortably. “Jesse… I want to die.”

A look of concern flashed across his face.

I continued, “I mean, I just don’t know if I canー”

He cut me off by pressing his lips to mine. I froze before pushing my lips back against his.

_Well, this is new._

We both closed our eyes before he tackled me back and lay on top of me. I laughed and tried to push him off of me. “Jesse, move! I can’t breathe.” I continued to laugh and he kissed wherever he could reach on my face.

After about forty seconds of that, he pulled back. “Rory, I want us to be together forever. But if you don’t drink human blood, you’ll die and that won’t happen.”

_I feel the same way._

I nodded and he climbed off of me. I looked around and saw a middle-aged man walking down the street. I looked at Jesse and he kissed my forehead. “It’s okay, Rory. You don’t have to take all of his blood. Just a bit, I promise.” He grabbed me around the waist and flew us out of my window. We stood in the shadows of the alley he was about to walk by. I looked back at Jesse, anxiously waiting. He kissed me quickly before whispering in my ear, “You, got this, my little bat.”

I laughed a little bit. “Bat?”

He kissed my forehead. “I’ll explain later. Go get him. I’ll be right here waiting when you get done. I promise.”

By now, the man was nearly right in front of us.

_Okay, Rory. You can do this. For Jesse._

I watched the man walk just past me, then I leaped from the shadows and could smell his blood. I felt my canines descend and before I could think anymore, I plunged my teeth into his neck and began to suck his blood.

_Holy shit._

A sour and metallic taste filled my mouth and I cringed back from it. The man fell over and I fell on the ground and started seizing. 

_Ah, shit. Again?_

I stopped shaking and lay on the ground for a minute before I stood up and walked back to Jesse. He hugged me and started to float us back to the window.

“Wait,” I said. “Let’s take the long way and walk. I need you to explain ‘bat’ to me.”

We flew to the ground and he let go of me. We started to walk.

“Well,” he began. “You’re dark, like depressed, you can fly now, you’re little and cute…”

I rolled my eyes at him. “I don’t feel very cute.”

He stopped walking and pulled me in for another hug. “You’re the most adorable person I know. You have to stop putting yourself down. You’re more amazing than I can ever tell you. Even when you had glasses and asthma, I thought you were amazing.”

_Wow, Jesse. Thank you so much._

I returned the hug twice as hard and let myself cry tears of joy. He stroked my hair before he pulled me on his back, where I rested my head on his shoulder.

“Sour Patch Kid,” I whispered while he walked us to my house.

“What’d you say,” Jesse asked.

“Sour Patch Kid.”

“What?”

“That’s your nickname.”

“Like, the candy?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Why’s that?”

“You’re sour, then sweet. Like the candy.”

“When have I ever been sour?”

“You bit me.”

“Well, I think my nickname should be a bit more metal than that.”

“Nope.”

_I hope he likes it. Cleverness isn’t exactly my strong suit._

At this point, we were standing at the front door of the house. I used my house key that I never got to take out of my pocket and opened the door. I led Jesse to my room. Once we were inside, I turned around and began to kiss him fervently. He kissed back just as hard and kicked my door shut. We made out and when things got heated, he took his shirt off. I sat and admired his body before following and taking my shirt off.

_Awesome._

Jesse stopped kissing me.

_Less awesome._

“Rory, you’re so thin,” he said, worriedly. “When was the last time you ate?”

I turned my head away and whispered, “A few days ago.”

He turned my head to face him and he kissed my forehead. “Bat, you have to eat. Even if you’re a vampire now, you should eat regularly. Even if you’re not draining someone, you should have food.” He ran out of my room again and came back with an apple. “Start with something with fewer calories. We’ll work up to more later, but for now, you just need something in your stomach.”

I took the apple from him and looked at it.

_Okay, Rory, it’s just an apple. Only sixty calories. You can handle it. Just take a bite._

I continued to look at the apple.

_Take a bite…_

I still sat there motionless.

_Take a bite, take a bite, dammit!_

I looked up at Jesse with tears in my eyes. I didn’t want to disappoint him. He seemed to be deep in thought before he seemed to get an idea.

“Okay,” he started. “I’m gonna make us some spaghetti. It should take about twenty minutes, and it’s more calories, but I know something we can do.” He stood up and started to put his shirt back on. He kissed my forehead, then sped out of the room.

Once he had left, I checked my phone to see about fifty messages from Ethan and Benny, asking where I was and if I was okay.

Ethan: Rory! We got out of there but Erica got bitten. Are you ok?

Me: Yea I just went home. I had to clear my head

Ethan: 👍 I guess it’ll be hard to adjust to life as a fledgling. See you later RV

Me: Byeeee

Now Benny.

Benny: Hey, Rorster. You left the party kinda fast. Do you feel alright?

Me: Yea, it’s just hard being a fledgling or whatever E called it. I’ll be ok tho. Promise

I didn’t get a response from Benny, so he may have been sleeping. I put my shirt back on and went to the bathroom to wash my face. I looked in the mirror to notice no reflection. I splashed some water on my face and went back to bed, scrolling through social media for a while.

I could hear Jesse climbing the stairs with a plate of spaghetti in hand.

_Two-hundred calories. More than the apple…_

Jesse walked into my room and sat the spaghetti between us. He took out his phone and started to play romantic music. He turned on the flashlight and put it under my red blanket to look like a candlelight. I smiled and rolled my eyes at him. He had put the forks on opposite sides of the plate and I picked one up. He did the same and began to eat. I hesitated before he guided my hand to get some noodles. His eyes traced one of the noodles then he put his fork in the plate and started to lift it to his mouth. As the noodles on my own fork moved, I realized the music he was playing was from _Lady and the Tramp_. I smiled and lifted my own fork to my mouth. As our lips moved closer, he bit the noodles severing the line. He pulled back and said, “You have to be quicker than that. Swallow the noodles in your mouth and try again. Remember, Bat, I’m playing to win.”

“Okay.” I nodded and smiled. “It’s on!”

_You hit the king, you better kill the king._

Looking back at the noisy conversation and loud eating, it’s a miracle my mom didn’t wake up.

I ate the noodles faster and tried to out-eat him until the last few noodles came and instead of severing the noodles, he slurped them up as much as he could and kissed me. I continued to slurp until I had eaten most of the noodles. Once I swallowed, I started to kiss back until we both came up for air and Jesse sped downstairs with the dishes. He ran back to my room and pushed me to lay down on the bed. He big spooned me and I sighed, “I won.”

He kissed the top of my head and I started to fall asleep.

_I’m still worried about something though…_

“Hey, Sour Patch Kid?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you feel like we’re moving too fast in the relationship?” I turned to face him.

He pulled me closer to him. “We’ll figure it out as we go.”

I nodded and he continued.

“After all, we have all the time in the world.”


	6. Chapter 6: Rated T

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a look inside Erica's head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Erica is hard as shit to type for, sorry about the short chapter. There are 2 updates today though, so don't be mad.

Erica’s PoV

I’m a mother. Fucking. Vampire. Hell yeah!

I smiled to myself. No more nerdy Erica who was obsessed with Dusk and ate too much. From now on, all I’ll eat is people. Even if she doesn’t approve. Just the thought of Sarah made my smile widen and my stomach flutter. 

I saw a man lying on the street near the house I was supposed to babysit tonight. I licked my lips and extended my fangs, ready for an easy meal. And I know that it was quick, and maybe a little immoral, but being a vampire was awesome! Who cares if I had to kill someone to survive. It was always for the greater good, more of me, and maybe my confidence in eating humans would help Sarah come out of her shell. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea to spend eternity with her. It’s like we were meant to best friends. I guess I got so distracted with...  _ feasting  _ on that defenseless man that I completely forgot about the passerby.

I stood up, sighing. I promised Sarah I would meet her. Ugh, being a vampire was great and all, but I just got so distracted by the smell of blood and people walking past, it was like I wasn’t human at all.

I looked around to make sure that no one was watching before I caught sight of something interesting. I looked in the window of a house to see Jesse snuggled up with the nerd boy from school. I was feeling confident in my new self. Besides, I needed something or someone to take my mind off of Sarah, and Jesse was the perfect target. I smiled to myself before I bit the man and completed my transformation into a vampire. I flew up to the nerd’s window which was open and tried to climb through. Something burned me and I yelped before falling down. I looked up to see the light in the room turn on before they both looked out of the window at me. I flew back up to the window and rolled my eyes before asking, “Can I come in?”

The nerd boy shrugged and waved me in. I flew in the window. He and Jesse sat on the bed, Jesse’s arms wrapped around him, while he sat between Jesse’s legs and leaned back onto his chest. I stayed standing while Jesse asked, “Why did you come here, Erica?”

I gave Jesse a glare. “You ditched the party and I had some questions.”

Jesse waved me on, while the nerd started to fall back asleep in his arms.

I started with my first question. “What’s his name,” I asked, waving to the nerd.

Jesse replied, “Rory.”

By now, soft snores could be heard from Rory.

I asked my next question. “Is he your boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I like him.”

“How come?” 

“Because he’s cute and funny and sweet.”

“There’s gotta be something you don’t like about him.”

Jesse was silent for a short while before he answered.

“He’s not very confident in himself.”

I smirked. “Mm, but I am. Why not leave him for me?”

I leaned dangerously close to Jesse before kissing him. He froze for a second before he kissed back, albeit not as hard. I smiled into the kiss while Jesse set Rory down on the bed. I felt a tear fall on my cheek but I didn’t care. I was finally winning something. I pulled Jesse into me before I had to breathe and broke off the kiss. I winked at Jesse and flew out of the window with a smile on my face. I could hear Jesse softly crying behind me but something told me that he would get over it. He needed me so that he could get to Sarah. For the time being, I had a hot boyfriend for once and I didn’t plan on letting him go.

Man, it’s good to be me.


	7. Chapter 7: Rated T

Sarah’s PoV

Ethan and I paced his room after learning that Jesse was Reverend Black. Keaton and Benny were taking care of Natalya at Ms. Weir’s house. Ethan called Rory who took a while to answer. He must have been sleeping. Ethan told Rory to come here and when he did, Ethan explained the situation.

I started to talk. “Rory, if we don’t stop Jesse, he’ll kill us all.”

Rory shook his head and said, “No.”

Ethan wrinkled his face in confusion. “Wait, what do you mean, ‘no’?”

Rory suddenly looked angry. “Jesse’s a good guy. He wouldn’t do that.”

Ethan looked taken aback. “Hey, why are you getting so defensive?”

Rory’s voice distorted to a deep, ghoulish voice. “Because he’s my boyfriend and he wouldn’t do something like that to hurt so many people!” His eyes turned yellow and his fangs extended.

Ethan slowly approached Rory and rested a hand on his shoulder before Ethan’s eyes turned glassy. Ethan stepped back and looked at Rory before tackling him in a hug that could only be described as a bro-hug. I smiled and showed myself out of the room before waiting downstairs for Ethan’s parents.

When they got there, I was paid and ran home as quickly as I could.

I had to be home as quickly as possible. Lord knows my brothers can’t take care of themselves. I sped through town until I saw my house less than half a mile away. I ran as fast as I could, and as expected, my parents weren’t home. They had started selling drugs when I was born and they broke the one rule. “Never get high on your own supply.” They were hardly ever home because they were constantly in rehab or selling drugs on the street.

_ Pigs. _

I walked into my house and took off my shoes. I had barely done that before my brothers Kaden and Casey pulled me into a hug. They were twins who were nine years old, and it was a miracle they had survived this long. I showed them my babysitting money and their eyes lit up. Tonight, we would order pizza for the first time in at least months. My brothers nearly talked my ears off with suggestions for toppings. I smiled at them while they watched TV, waiting for the pizza to arrive. Then my face darkened.

_ Jesse, if you touch a hair on their heads, you’ll have hell to pay. That’s a promise. _

The pizza got to my house in just under thirty minutes.

“Hello,” said the pizza man. “Can I come in?”

I simply stated, “No,” and closed the door in his face.

“Guys,” I called. “Pizza’s here!” The boys nearly fell over themselves scrambling for a slice. I grabbed only one slice and left the rest for the wolvesー boys. I sat on my couch and finally let the events of the last few days sink in. I got bitten, Jesse broke up with me, I started babysitting a spellmaster and whatever Ethan is, I met two more magic people who wiped my memory, I found out what the plan was for the  _ cubile animus,  _ Jesse’s dating Rory, and here I am now. Fuuuuuuccccckkkkkkkk. I took out my phone and made a group chat with Ethan and Benny. I asked Benny to add Natalya and Keaton, in hopes that we could work together to come up with a solution to the Jesse problem.

Me: Hey, guys. We need a plan to defeat the vampires. Keaton and Natalya, explain your magic to me. Benny, tell me all of the spells you know. Ethan, tell me what happens when you space out after you touch someone. Respond in that order

Keaton: Damn, way to take charge, lmao

Keaton: I worship the gods of the sun and moon, Apollo and Artemis respectively. In exchange for various offerings, I get the ability to learn and cast spells among other powers

Natalya: ^ but I worship the goddess of law and justice: Themis

Keaton: My other powers include manipulation and creation of natural light, and I can summon a bow made of sunlight and moonlight. I can control another person's biology as well as my own. I don't do it often, or really ever because it requires really specific manipulation of the human body, down to the individual cells, nerves, and neurons. I also can't sunburn if that means anything

Natalya: It doesn't but anyway, I can tell when people are lying and force them to tell the truth. I sometimes get small glimpses of the future because that's a gift Themis has

Me: Cool cool. Benny, you’re up

Benny: I’m a spellmaster which is inherited from my grandma. I can learn and cast spells but it doesn’t cost me anything. The only spell I know is the one to make fire

Me: Ethan, now you

Ethan: When I touch someone or something supernatural, I can see glimpses of things related to them or it from the past, present, or future. Idk what that power is called tho

Keaton: You’re a seer. Spells that hide the truth don’t work on you and you have the gifts of hindsight, insight, and foresight. There’s some more stuff but Ms. Weir won’t tell us what it is

Ethan: Oh, cool

Natalya: Maybe you’ll touch Keaton and get a vision

Keaton: Fuck off, Tally

Ethan: 😳

Natalya put the picture she had taken in the car in the chat.

Keaton: Dude! Wtf??

Ethan: Oh, um-

Me: Guys, focus. We need to figure out how to beat Jesse. Keaton, tell me more about the sunlight thing

Keaton: Well, I can control natural light, so if I bend it properly, I can make myself or other things invisible, or make illusions. It’s a lot of energy though. I can also create light. I can shoot sunlight from any part of my body if that’s helpful. Again, a lot of energy 

Benny: Yeah, speaking of that, what happened to you when you passed out, Natalya?

Natalya: Magic is pure energy, and since it’s not a natural part of me or Keaton, sometimes our bodies don’t agree with it. So casting spells uses up energy, which means when we run out, we pass out to regain energy. Keaton tries to keep food on him so he doesn’t burn out. Since magic is a part of you, Benny, all you need to do is focus and say the right words.

Me: Great, so who has a plan to defeat Jesse?

Ethan: Maybe Keaton could hit him with sunlight a couple of times or use some of his arrows bc I don’t think those take up extra energy other than summoning them. Plus he has wooden arrows that work like stakes

Me: Oh, shit I just remembered Rory

Keaton: Whom’st

Natalya: Who’s that?

Ethan: Oh fuck. He’s dating Jesse, he’ll be devastated

Me: It’s getting kind of late. We’re definitely talking about this at school tomorrow. Then we need to train

Natalya: Ditch day! Ditch day! Ditch day!

Ethan: Wait, what if it goes on my record?

Me: It’ll be fine. You’re a master nerd. You can just hack the computer and mark yourself present

Ethan: Okay, goodnight…

I put away my phone just in time to see that Kaden and Casey had finished the entire pizza and were starting to fall asleep. I put them in their beds and kissed their foreheads before going to sleep myself

I woke up, got ready for school, and rushed Kaden and Casey to the bus stop before leaving myself. I got to school and began to walk to Ethan’s locker when I bumped into Jesse and Erica, who were standing close to each other. Erica began to taunt me.

“Oh, Jesse, I think she still has a thing for you.”

I rolled my eyes. “I have something for both of you. It’s really sharp and made of wood.”

Jesse laughed. “Sarah, you’ve been replaced.”

He and Erica turned to each other and started to kiss passionately. I rolled my eyes before I heard a voice behind me.

“Jesse?”

I turned to see Rory looking at Jesse, tears already in his eyes. Jesse looked shocked. “Hey, Rory, wait!”

Rory turned and ran down the hall while Jesse followed him. I turned away and continued walking to Ethan’s locker.

I got to Ethan’s locker to see everyone waiting for me.

“Guys,” I said. “I don’t think Rory’s going to be a problem.”

Ethan frowned. “Why not?”

I responded timidly. “Jesse’s been cheating on him with Erica and Rory just found out.”

Ethan nodded to himself, then a dark look crossed his face. “He made a mistake. He hurt my friend. Jesse fucked up because now I’m not just going to defeat him…”

Everyone stared at Ethan. We hadn’t seen this side of him before. Ethan finished in a threatening voice.

“I’m going to kill him. And this time, he'll stay dead.”


	8. Chapter 8: Rated T

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle begins...
> 
> After some other stuff, haha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all, this chapter took up 7 pages on Google Docs, it's a long one

Ethan’s PoV

I stormed through the hall, seething as Keaton followed me. I could hardly think. All I knew was that I was angry and that Jesse was the cause.

Keaton stepped in front of me. “Hey, Ethan. You need to calm down. Murdering someone can fuck you up psychologically. Especially if it's in cold blood. Please, just breathe.”

I glared at him. “I don’t care. He shouldn’t have cheated on Rory for that bitch.”

He glared back just as hard. I’d have to ask him how he mastered the glare the way he did. “Ethan, you need to listen to me. You might mess yourself up and your friends really don’t want that for you. Come with me to the cafeteria and we’ll just relax so you can calm down.”

I growled, “No.”

Keaton leaned forward and hugged me while whispering something under his breath. I pushed him off of me.

“Dude! Did you just try to cast a spell on me?”

Keaton shook his head. “I was just saying how much I already care about you and wouldn’t want you to permanently damage yourself.”

My expression softened and I let him lead me to the cafeteria. I guess I had a soft spot for him. We sat down at a table once we got there and Keaton held up five fingers. “Come on.” He gave a goofy smile. “We're playing Never Have I Ever.”

I swiveled to face Keaton and rolled my eyes. “Okay, let’s get this over with. You go first.”

Keaton flashed me a stupid, adorable smile.

_ Adorable? _

“Hmm. Never have I ever watched Star Wars.”

My eyes widened as I put a finger down. “You haven’t? Oh my gods we have to watch it.”

Keaton smiled and said, “I look forward to it. Your turn.”

I smiled, feeling a little less angry. “Never have I ever seen a pole and started pole-dancing.”

Keaton put a finger down. “It’s not my fault. It’s like they’re calling to me!”

I looked at him just admiring his goofy nature while I waited for him to ask his question.

“Never have I ever wanted to kiss a guy.”

We both put our fingers down and his face turned red. My own ears felt warm. I started to talk. “I dated Benny for about seven months but the farthest we ever got was cuddling on the couch.”

Keaton nodded and gestured for me to ask my next question. The score was three-to-three. 

I thought for a second before I came up with a question I considered good. “Never have I ever broken the law.”

Keaton put a finger down.

“Oh my gods,” I exclaimed. “You have to tell me the story.”

“Okay,” he started. “Well, first of all, I told my mom to fuck off, and swearing in public is illegal where I come from in the U.S. Also, one time I ate like, four pounds of candy from a store because I thought it was free. Plus there was this one time I was tasked with unlocking my dad’s car for him and I jumped in the driver’s seat and tried to drive away.”

“Oh, jeez,” I said. “Why’d you say that to your mom?”

“Well,” he responded. “She doesn’t like that I’m not a Christian, plus she really, really wants me to be straight. Same goes with my dad.”

I thought for a bit about something before I listened to my gut. I laid down on his lap so that I was looking up at him upside-down. He froze before he asked his next question.

“Never have I ever kissed a guy.”

I scrunched my face in confusion. “Keaton, I already told youー”

I was interrupted by Keaton leaning down and softly pressing his lips to mine. 

_ What in ribless, flexible hell? _

I froze and pressed my head up to meet his lips. I held my hand up and put a finger down. Keaton laughed before a look of terror took over his face.

“Oh my gods, Ethan, I’m so sorry. I should’ve asked and I just think you’re really cute and cool but I swear, it’ll never happen again.”

I smiled, almost in a disconnected way. “Why not?”

Keaton looked confused before another smile spread across his face and I sat up so it would be easier to kiss him. I kissed him softly and he kissed back. He pulled off of the kiss after a short amount of time and he hugged me.

“Ethan,” he whispered into my chest. “Thank you for listening to me talk about my parents.”

I ran my fingers through his curly hair. “Of course. It probably wasn’t easy to talk about.”

I could feel him nodding into my chest. Just then, I heard both of our phones make the notification sound. Sarah told us that it was time to go get equipment from my house and then go to practice near the church. I stood up to leave and gestured to Keaton to stand up too. He smiled and stood before taking my hand in his. As we walked down the hall, Keaton smiled and said, “I call being the little spoon.”

I nodded and said, “Deal.”

We walked out of the doors and to my house, where everyone was already waiting. As we walked into my house and to my room, we passed by Sarah who winked at me when she saw me and Keaton holding hands.

We got to my room and Keaton started helping me pack while we talked. “So,” I began, remembering my question from earlier. “How did you master the death glare?”

Keaton threw some stakes into my backpack. “Ethan, I have seven siblings. The death glare isn’t a trick for me. It’s a means for survival.”

I smiled and kissed him on the cheek while I tried to figure out where to put my UV sabers.

“Here,” Keaton insisted. “Give them to me.”

I handed him the sabers and he closed his eyes to concentrate. He opened his mouth and said,  _ “Parvus.” _ The sabers shrunk into a more manageable size and I put them in the bag.

“Well,” I sighed. “That’s everything. We should get going.”

Keaton nodded and we walked down the stairs together.

“Hey, you don’t mind if I talk about my relationship with Benny or cuddle him platonically, right?”

Keaton shrugged. “Nah, I trust you. Besides, you might have to. I think Tally has a thing for him and she’ll probably ask you what he likes and stuff. Would you care if I send videos of me singing to my friends in the U.S. even if they have romantic lyrics?”

I shook my head. “They’re just songs.”

Keaton smiled and kissed my cheek. “I’ll have to sing one for you sometime.”

We got to the car and we both sat in the backseat. I was between Natalya and Keaton [A/N I understand how this could be a metaphor but chill, English teachers. Ethan just happens to sit in the middle]. Keaton held my hand through the entire car ride and would’ve fallen asleep if the church weren’t so close to my house. The car took a sharp turn and Natalya bumped into me. Suddenly I wasn’t in the car anymore.

_ I was in someplace in the United States. I saw Natalya and Keaton running away from somewhere, a car was trailing behind them while two people who looked like Keaton followed behind them. I realized that they were his parents right as my vision ended. _

I looked over at Keaton.

“What,” he asked. “What’d you see?”

I leaned over and hugged him around the waist. “Keaton, I never want you to have to run again.”

He looked over at Natalya, then stroked my hair.

We pulled up to the church where Keaton and I ran into the church while he bent sunlight around us so we would be invisible. This way, it would be easier to get holy water without getting caught.

We filled the water guns and ran around the back to the graveyard where Sarah had set up some practice dummies.

“Alright, everybody line up,” she commanded. I got in the front of the line with one of my Nerf guns I had modified to fit small pencils inside. I held it up, took aim at the dummy’s head, pulled the trigger, and missed. I hung my head and moved to the back of the line, where Benny attempted the same thing and managed to graze the dummy’s cheek. He walked behind me and Natalya stepped in front of the dummy with her sword. In one quick swipe, she had taken its head off. Sarah put the next one in front of Keaton who held up his hand and shot out some sunlight. Only it was kind of lame. It was just like turning on a flashlight. I was at the front again.

“Okay,” Sarah said. “Everyone, do the same thing you just did, but this time I’ll be giving advice. Except for you Natalya. You’re golden. Ethan, try to focus on the dummy, instead of the gun. Same goes for you, Benny. Keaton, we’ll talk in a second.”

I aimed the gun at the dummy’s head again, but this time, I focused on the dummy, not the gun. I fired, and the stake stayed in its forehead. Benny took aim at the heart, and the bullet hit slightly to the left. He shot again and hit it dead center. Natalya went to stand next to Sarah, while Keaton moved to the front of the line.

“Okay, Keaton,” started Sarah. “Tell me how you create the sunlight from your hand. It's good for a distraction, but not a kill.”

“Well,” Keaton started to explain. “I focus on the light that’s already around me. If it’s moonlight, it has to be converted, which isn’t difficult because it’s just a reflection of sunlight. It just requires me to use my own body heat to change the temperature, which is only dangerous if it’s super cold and nighttime or something. If it’s sunlight, I just need to channel it through my body like a conductor, then push the force out through my hand.”

Sarah nodded, then inquired, “What if instead of forcing it out of your hand, you focus it through one specific point on your palm so it’s like a laser?”

Keaton held his hand out, took a deep breath, and focused the sunlight out of the center of his palm. The laser that shot out was about as wide as the end of a needle and pierced straight through the neck of the dummy. The part it went through caught fire and spread until the entire dummy was ablaze. Keaton’s eyes widened, then he passed out. Luckily, Sarah was fast enough to catch him and set him gently on the ground.

Natalya ran up to him and sat him against a tree. I kneeled in front of him and worriedly asked, “Is there anything we can do to wake him up faster?”

Natalya shrugged. “Not unless you happen to have a bunch of heroin on you. Putting him in sunlight can help speed it up, but otherwise, we have to wait for his body to naturally replace his energy.”

I kissed his forehead and sat next to him, idly shooting stakes at the other dummies in the distance. The shooting stakes got me thinking of something totally unrelated to Keaton. “Hey, Natalya,” I called. “Why do wooden stakes kill vampires?”

Natalya sat on the other side of Keaton. “Well, back when vampires were really prevalent, people would put wooden stakes in the graves. That way, if a corpse happened to rise, it would impale itself and die again, permanently this time.”

I nodded. “Okay, cool. What about sunlight?”

“It mostly doesn’t kill them, unless the sunlight were something like you saw Keaton do, that would damage a normal person. Since vampires are creatures of the night, they have a harder time adjusting to sunlight. Sorry, but that’s the best explanation I got right now.”

Keaton started to stir, but then he held still again and his head fell onto my lap. I looked at him briefly then back at Natalya. She looked at him for a moment too. “So, fighting with light? It won’t kill them, but it will hurt them, And stakes can do both. We can do this.” I smiled, trying to keep the mood optimistic. You know, with the vampires and all? But at least with Natalya and Keaton’s powerful magic, we had a fighting chance. 

I lifted Keaton so that he was sitting up again. Natalya whispered,  _ “Alacritas,”  _ and Keaton glowed for a bit before the glow faded.

I tilted my head. “What’d you do?”

Natalya stood up. “I cast an energy spell. When he wakes up, he should have more magical and physical energy. He’s gonna need it if my idea works.”

I looked at Keaton while Natalya started to walk away. “Hey,” I yelled. “Where are you going?”

Natalya started stretching. “For a run. I need to build my stamina because magic feeds off of your body’s energy. I try to run and increase my body’s stamina because the more stamina I have…”

“The more magic you can do,” I finished. 

Natalya smiled. “Exactly.”

“What about Keaton?”

“He can absorb light energy. He can’t cast spells and regenerate at the same time though, so it’s not like he has unlimited power, and if he uses too much magic faster than he can regain energy, he’ll have to regain it through sleep, like every other warlock.”

“Natalya, I have two more questions for you.”

“Hit me.”

“Well, how did you guys get so powerful? I’ve read about Wiccans and the most intense spell I’ve ever heard of from them is making someone slip in a puddle.”

“Well, Ethan, my mom taught us magic and helped us build a better relationship with our patrons. Most witches use magic as a tool, but we use it like it’s a part of us. Just being able to do magic is an incredible gift, and our power grew as we showed our appreciation for that gift. Eventually, we had to integrate that power into us like a blood transfusion. Actually, it was exactly like that. Our patrons appeared before us and cut themselves open. We both pricked a finger and allowed the blood to fuse, which gave us a small portion of our patrons’ powers. It also amped up our spellcasting abilities so that we could do more than manipulate small things. For example, instead of making someone slip on a puddle, we could create the puddle.”

I could feel my eyes widening. “Natalya, that’s incredible. Do you think Iー”

“No.”

“What? Why not?”

“The universe is about balance. You can’t be a seer and learn magic, or else the universe won’t get mad. It’ll get even.”

I nodded and looked down at Keaton. I kissed his forehead and he opened his eyes and stretched. He leaned up and kissed me softly.

“So, for my next question, you could both probably help answer it. Why was Keaton running from his parents?”

Keaton and Natalya shared a look. Keaton chose to speak. “Ethan, there are two ways I can let you know. There’s a spell to make you see my memories, or I can tell you.”

I thought about it and made my decision. “I want you to tell me. You need to save your magic for tonight.”

Keaton took a breath. “Well, it started the summer I was going into eighth grade and my mom took my phone. She forced me to unlock it and she found out I was gay. She told me that God put man and woman together to have kids and that she could never accept me for who I was and still am. Then I told my mom that I practiced witchcraft, and she did not at all approve. She told my dad all of the things that she was never even meant to know and they started acting horribly. Commenting on my weight, comparing me to other people to make me feel like shit, threatening to hit me if I didn’t pray to their god… Eventually, my depression grew and started to present. I cut my wrists, burned myself, wouldn’t eat, hell, I even drank every once in a while. One day, I was prepared to kill myself when Natalya noticed me acting strange at school. She took me to her house where I hid from my parents. Legally, she kidnapped me but I didn’t care. Natalya’s mom taught us how to connect with our patrons beyond basic witchcraft and our powers flourished. Spellmasters had taken over most magic, so if you asked Benny’s grandma, we had accessed an ancient type of magic that hardly anyone had done for a while. Anyway, one day Natalya and I were walking back to her house and my parents found me. They had chased me down in my mom’s car and Natalya had to slash their tires with a spell to stop them. We were just beginning our advanced magic so I had to carry her to her house while my parents chased me on foot. They had almost caught up and would’ve forced me to go ‘home’ if Natalya’s mom didn’t send them back to their own houses and hidden me in her basement. Depression is still definitely present in me and I don’t always cope the best, but I think I’m getting better.”

I blinked tears away from my eyes and I could see Keaton doing the same. I tackled him in a hug and turned us over so he was on top of me. I let him cry into my shirt while Natalya rubbed his back. I pulled his chin up and set us up so that I could kiss him. I kissed him softly and reluctantly, but I kissed him all the same. He kissed back desperately, obviously needing some kind of comfort. I made him look me in the eyes. “Hey,” I said in a calming voice. “My parents have said some things about gay people too. But I want you to know that I’m here for you and I always will be. I promise.”

Keaton wiped the tears from his eyes and ran his fingers through my hair. “Come on.” He sniffled. “Let’s practice some more for tonight.”

Natalya smirked. “Hey, Keaton. I have a plan but it’ll definitely use up a lot of magical energy.” She whispered in his ear and he nodded. 

“Sounds good.”

...

We showed up at the movie theatre early to fill the water systems with holy water and finish any preparations we still had to make. Keaton had enchanted my gun for steady firing. As long as I kept my cool and didn’t get any nervous shakes, my aim would hopefully be true. Natalya and Keaton had both had ungodly amounts of 5-Hour Energy®️ and were praying for strength. I walked up to Benny to discuss some plans. “So,” Benny recapped. “Grandma gave us these daggers, told us to keep Keaton and Natalya not dead, and most importantly, to win. I have a spellbook now but I accidentally made it vanish, and now we’re on our way to save two-hundred nineteen people and take down an ancient, super-powerful vampire.”

“Yup.” I shrugged. “Seems about right. It’s hard to believe that just two days ago, we were worried about ‘joining the high school brotherhood.’”

Benny wrapped me in a hug and I returned it. Hell, this might’ve been our last hug. “Hey, Benny,” I mumbled.

“Yeah, E?”

“Thank you for everything.”

“You too, nerd.

“Geek.”

We both smiled at each other before he ruffled my hair and went to go unpack some more stuff. Keaton and I walked into the movie theatre and went to opposite sides of the stage in case we needed a distraction. When we got there, the Duskers were already seated and Jesse was already talking.

“... what every Dusker wants.” He bit a poor girl who fell over, dead. He opened the  _ cubile animus _ and her soul was sucked in.

I looked at Keaton and nodded. “Fire,” I yelled into the crowd. Keaton muttered a spell and a bolt of fire hit the stage and set it ablaze. The audience started to shuffle out of the room and Jesse, unfortunately, sicked his vampires on our innocent classmates. The sound of the squelching of fangs biting into necks was sickening but pure adrenaline kept me from throwing up and collapsing. Keaton summoned his bow of light and shot arrows into the crowd, never missing his target. I shot my stake bullets but they weren’t enough. There were so many vampires and only two of us. Keaton ran up to me and smiled at me. He kissed me, then closed his eyes. A grin spread across his face and he started to glow. Vampires turned away from the sudden sunlight and as his smile widened, his glow got more intense to the point where even people were shielding their eyes. While the vampires couldn’t open their eyes, he continued to pick them off with deadly aim. I turned away until the glow started to subside and the vampires were dazed, but still, unfortunately, not dead. One ran up to me, and I stabbed in through the chest with one of the daggers Benny’s grandma gave us. A glow came from the wound until the vampire screamed and turned into ash. I saw Jesse running away and I ran after him, gesturing for Keaton to do the same. 

Keaton pointed to the sprinklers and said,  _ “Ignis.” _ A bolt of fire, smaller than the ones I had seen Benny use shot from his finger and set off the sprinklers. Holy water fell from the ceiling as we ran after Jesse. Keaton bent the moonlight around himself to stay hidden in case something went wrong while I confronted Jesse.

I found Jesse standing in front of my house, waiting for the sun to eclipse the moon. I took aim with my gun and managed to get a shot between his shoulder blades. Jesse winced and turned to face me. I would’ve been scared but I was fueled by adrenaline. Adrenaline… and  _ anger. _

I yelled, “That’s for Rory, you sorry ass son-of-a-bitch!” Jesse’s face softened, then his eyes glowed blue and I could see fangs that he wasn’t showing before. I ran up to him with my knife raised, but he used telekinesis to knock it from my hand.

_ When did vampires get telekinesis? _

I tried to charge him but he used his telekinesis to bring me to my knees. “Heh,” he chuckled. “You’re cute Ethan. I think I like you in this position. Maybe if we went to my place you could stay like this. I think you'd be a greatー"

I heard a voice behind Jesse.

“Get the  _ fuck _ away from my boyfriend.”


	9. Chapter 9: Rated T

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle ends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early update because we're busy tomorrow.

Keaton’s PoV

I knew Jesse could pin my location now, but I didn’t care. I shot a sunlight arrow into his leg, and he fell to the ground, still keeping one hand pointed toward Ethan to keep him incapacitated. I bent the light to make it seem as though there were five of me, all of us running circles around Jesse. I aimed with another sun arrow and hit the arm that wasn’t holding Ethan. I saw Jesse’s ears twitch and he looked directly at me. The real me.

“Oh.” Jesse gave me and Ethan a shit-eating grin. “Ethan is your boyfriend, huh? Well in that case…” His eyes glowed. “Kiss me.”

My body moved on its own, I looked to Ethan apologetically but realized that the plan could work with this. The decoys vanished.

“Jokes on you, bitch,” I yelled. “You got bitten in high school. You’ll have to go through puberty forever.” 

I started to move forward faster before Jesse smashed his lips to mine aggressively. I pressed my lips back just as hard and made sure that I was making as much physical contact with him as I could. I could feel every part of his body, inside and out, almost like his was my own. He used the kiss to push me to the ground where he looked at Ethan, who looked horrified. I looked at him too and winked at him before I put Tally’s plan into action. I focused on the moonlight while also focusing on Jesse. I pulled the moonlight into my body before changing the heat. Jesse was starting to nibble on my lip.

_ Okay, ew. _

I channeled the newly formed sunlight into my body as Jesse grabbed my hair and pulled it back roughly. I used Jesse’s body to continue the plan. I pushed the sunlight from my body into Jesse’s. I planted a small seed in his heart, then extracted stamina from the moonlight as I felt the seed of light I planted in Jesse grow as his heart pumped it into his blood vessels. He stopped kissing me and I could feel his nerves screaming from the burn. He let go of Ethan and stumbled back. I limped over to Ethan as the light in Jesse's body continued to expand until there was light shooting from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. Eventually, even his pores and hairs all over his body. He was completely aglow. I could hear a sizzling as the light died down, leaving a skeleton, that even in its current state was starting to regrow skin and internal organs. Jesse’s skeleton was growing back into Jesse, and I barely had the energy to move.

“Ethan,” I croaked. “The dagger.” Even the energy I was drawing from the moonlight would take a while to make me useful again. Ethan ran over to the dagger and grabbed it.

Ethan looked at Jesse, whose vocal cords had just grown back. “Tell me,” Ethan demanded. “Did you ever really like Rory?”

Jesse froze before answering, “Yes.” By now, his leg muscles had regrown. “I really, really liked him, but then Erica manipulated me into cheating.”

Ethan shook his head. “You let her,” he said. “You did nothing to stop it. My vision at my house,  _ that  _ was it. Shut the fuck up, liar. And yeah, I saw your damn crocodile tears.” Ethan threw the dagger, which lodged itself in Jesse’s rib cage. Jesse’s skeleton glowed before turning into ash. I crawled to the  _ cubile animus  _ and opened it up to trap Jesse’s soul inside. I slammed the lid shut while Ethan came over to me. I curled up in his lap as he sat down, simply breathing.

“So,” he panted. “That thing with you kissing Jesse…”

“Ugh.” I spit on the ground. “Don’t remind me. I promise it was just me adapting. Nothing more. Why would I go for him when I could have this?” I reached out and teasingly grabbed his bicep.

“Yeah.” He held his arms up and flexed. “They are pretty impressive, huh?”

I rolled my eyes, despite my smile. “Dork.”

“And yet you kissed me first.”

“Hm.” I tilted my head up to kiss his cheek. “Touché.”

I tried to stand on my feet, and nearly fell over. Ethan slung my arm around his shoulder and walked us back to the movie theatre. As we arrived back in the Dusk screening room, I saw something all-too-familiar. Gord, Jesse’s friend, was hypnotizing Natalya into kissing him.

_ Christ, do all vampires only do the same tricks? _

As Natalya leaned forward, I felt a flare of magic and saw Benny, red with rage. All of the chairs floated into the air and smashed themselves into the ground. Then, all of the wooden splinters or pieces pointed at Gord, threatening him as a bunch of stakes that he couldn’t avoid. I closed my eyes and they all pierced him at once, making a sickening  _ crunch  _ and causing him to turn to ash.

I saw Sarah fending off two vampires. I limped over to her and focused moonlight into my eyes, careful not to release the magic for fear of collapsing. As my eyes glowed white, I recited,  _ “Blood turn black and skin turn blue, I’ll curse you if you force me to. By the left hand and the unclean food, I’ll curse your eyes, I’ll curse your lies, I’ll call down a plague of flies. Blood go black and flesh go blue, evil from me and back to you. My soul clean and yours on fire. You fuck with a witch, you get burned, liar.” _

The vampires shared a frightened look before they ran out of the room. Benny looked at me in shock. “What did you do to them?”

I shrugged. “Nothing. Spells in English don’t work unless Tally and I say them at the same time because both of our gods prefer Latin.”

Sarah started laughing, then high-fived me. “Way to bluff,” she complimented.

“Thanks.” I laughed, then passed out.

...

I woke up on Ms. Weir’s couch with Ethan, Benny, and Natalya standing over me. “Guys,” I began. “Normally, I would tell you all how much I love and appreciate you. Right now though, the only one I love and appreciate is an energy drink.”

They all smiled, and Natalya went to her room to grab some more 5-Hour Energy®. She came back and I drank the whole thing like a shot. “Tally,” I said. “If we’re addicted to these by the time we graduate, I’m blaming you.”

Natalya laughed and uttered,  _ “Dobitza.”  _ I recognized the spell just as I fell off of the couch. I pulled myself up but then noticed something.

“Hey, guys, where’s Sarah,” I asked.

Benny chose to answer. “She’s looking for Erica. No one has any memory of taking her down, so Sarah’s going to go talk to her. Natalya and I were going to go look for them.”

I waved them toward the door. “Don’t let me stop you guys. You can fill me in when you get back.”

“Keaton,” Benny muttered. “We don’t know what Erica’s like now. She might be hungry andー”

I interrupted, “ _ When  _ you get back. If you die, I’ll kill you both.”

Natalya flipped me off. “I love you too.”

Benny and Natalya walked away and I heard the door shut. Ethan was still standing next to me. I forced myself to sit up so that Ethan could sit next to me. Once he had, I flopped across his lap and pulled his chin down so he would look at me. His eyes still avoided mine.

“Hey, Ethan.” I smiled up at him. “You’ve been quiet. Are you okay?”

Ethan started to talk. “Yeah, I’m… I’m…” Tears welled up in his eyes. “No. I’m really not,” he sobbed. “My aim was just slightly off when I shot Jesse and because of that, he lived longer and he could’ve killed you. What if you had gotten hurt and it was my fault?”

“Hey, it’s okay,” I reassured. “Your aim was great for someone who’s never done that before. I did get hurt but it was of my own accord. I gave away my position and most of the pain is just from using a lot of magic. He has vampire hearing anyway. He could’ve heard my heartbeat or anything.” Ethan still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Ethan, look at me,” I commanded. His eyes looked into mine. “You did great. You have no magic, had only four hours of training in your life, none of your visions told you what would happen, and you still kicked major ass.”

Ethan offered a weak smile.

“Hey,” I said. “You know what I suggest?” Ethan shook his head. “Pizza date. We order a box, watch a movie, and we can cuddle a little bit.”

Ethan thought for a moment, then shook his head again. “Not yet. Can we just stay like this,” he asked.

I leaned up and kissed him. “Of course, but I am going to need some food.”

He gave a hollow laugh, then wiped the tears off of his face. I smiled at him lazily, then held up two fingers. “Come on,” I said. “We never finished our game.”  
Ethan put up two fingers. “Never have I ever seen a horror movie that made me cry.” I kept both of my fingers up and stuck my tongue out at him. I realized how the tongue could be interpreted and quickly put my tongue back in, my temperature rising.

It was my turn. I could do something that I had done because I had a finger to spare, but then that would allow Ethan to finish the game. I made my decision. “Never have I ever watched an entire series in less than a week.” 

We both put a finger down and I quirked an eyebrow. “Star Trek: The Next Generations,” he said. “It took most of the hours total in a week. I barely slept.” 

I laughed. “Dork. Your turn.” 

Ethan giggled. “Never have I ever… been able to use witchcraft.” I put my last finger down. 

“Rude.” He leaned over and pecked me on the cheek. “Can we get some food now,” I asked, wanting to get this “date” started. He nodded and took out his phone. 

“Let’s hope we don’t have to fight off a pizza guy again,” he joked. 


	10. Chapter 10: Rated T

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weir (We're(Sorry, I had to make the pun)) busy again tomorrow, so early update. Sorry for the short chapter.

Benny’s PoV

We waved goodbye to the two and slammed the door behind us, neither of us really sure on how to start looking for our two missing friends. 

The night was cold and dark, but Natalya and I stayed out to find Sarah, who stayed out to find Erica. To be honest, I was a bit scared that a hungry Erica would bite one of us and I couldn’t let that happen to us. To  _ her. _ I glanced over at her, and she stared ahead. We hadn’t really talked much since the party, but that was only because we were all about to die. And even then, the only thing we talked about was how we were going to find them. 

“Hey, Benny.” She muttered. I looked at her, now realized how lost in that trail of thought I was. “What if we start back where we foughtー” 

I cut her off. “There is no way we are going back there, I’m sure they wouldn’t stay there, but you could’ve gotten hurt.” She shook her head. 

“I was caught  _ off guard _ . I’m super strong.” 

I sighed. “Fine.” She smiled and we started walking in the direction of my house now, wanting to convince my grandma why she should let us borrow her car. 

When we arrived, Natalya talked to her for a minute or two, my grandma nodding along. “Of course you can use the car, just, please be careful.” She looked at me and I smiled, grabbing the keys from the kitchen counter and making my way out to the driveway to open the passenger seat door for Natalya. She giggled, and we drove back to the address of the party. 

“Benny, thank you for agreeing to help me find them,” she stated. I smiled, a faint blush appearing on my face. 

“Of course, Natalya. You could get hurt on your own.” She looked at me, I glanced back at her for a moment before parking the car on the side of the road, near the house but, not too close to it. She got out of the car first, now moving to open my door. I chuckled and we made our way back inside the house, looking around for any clues as to where Sarah and Erica could be. Or if they stayed here. Natalya was now in the backyard, searching through bushes and the large lit pool, then resorting to calling their names as she looked. I tilted my head as I watched the front door open, just slightly. Then quickly, I’m not sure how to explain it. It was like something out of the flash. Definitely a vampire. I called Natalya over and she ran after it, chanting and holding her arms out toward it. She finished and I heard a loud ‘thud’ as he hit the concrete ground beneath him. 

It wasn’t one that either of us recognized, I decided to talk first. “Do you know anything about Erica? She’s a vampire. She’s missing.” 

He shook his head. "I'll never tell you." Natalya stared nearly through him.

"Oh," she said. If she weren't right in front of me, I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint her voice. It was bouncing off the walls and it sounded ancient. It sounded  _ powerful. _ "I think you will. 

The words poured out of him. “All I know is that this blonde chick ran after some of us.” 

She nodded. “Where is she?” He gave us the location where Erica had started chasing him and we walked away. He had tried to get up and bite us, but Natalya forced him to stay on the ground with magic. We drove to the location he mentioned and found ourselves, in the middle of an empty field with Erica in the middle. 

Natalya ran over to her, asking her questions, her voice back to normal. Erica pointed to the group of vampire boys we had kept her from catching. We all shared a laugh. “But, where’s Sarah?” I asked, looking around the field. 

Erica's face dropped. “Isn’t she at the house?” We shook our heads. 

“She came out earlier to look for you,” Natalya stated, gently. Suddenly, Sarah emerged from the shadows. She looked out of breath, despite the super speed thing. She smiled, walking over to us, rushing to hug Erica.

“Fuck, you ran everywhere.” She said, struggling to catch her breath. Erica smiled.

“Aw, you didn’t have to run after me. I just wanted a snack.” She joked, hugging Sarah back. 

Natalya and I looked at each other, then to the two girls. I decided to say what we both were thinking. I chuckled. “Since when are you two so friendly?” Sarah backed away, just a little. 

“Well, friends are allowed to be friendly, Benny. You can’t even say anything, you’re a geek. You need to take all of the friends you can get.” We all laughed and I offered the girls a ride home. 

When I asked for Sarah’s address, she declined and said she would walk home, and Erica offered to go with her. I then drove Natalya back to Ethan’s.


	11. Chapter 11: Rated T

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all our computers decided not to computer, so take 2 chapters.

Natalya’s PoV

Benny and I drove mostly in silence, processing everything that had just happened. Benny seemed to have something on his mind. I didn’t want to distract him from driving, so I decided I’d wait until we got to Ms. Weir’s house. I started to doze off and I heard Benny laugh before I fell into a light sleep.

I woke up when I felt that one turn that let me know we were at our destination. As soon as the car stopped, I heard Benny unbuckling his seatbelt. I grabbed his arm and he looked at me.

“Hey,” I uttered. “Are you okay? You seem bothered.”

He sighed. “I was just thinking about how you can handle anything that's thrown at you and I can only take on stuff that's flammable.”

I blinked in shock. “That's what this is about? You want to learn more spells?”

Benny nodded, suddenly taking interest in the floor of the car. I pulled him in for a hug and pulled his spellbook out of the glove compartment. “Benny,” I said. “You have this. You can learn plenty of spells. I'll tell you what. Tomorrow, we're going to the church. Bring the book. Tell me what kind of spells you want to learn or focus on and we'll work on those.”

Benny opened the book and started scanning the pages until he turned to me. “I want to work on stunning spells, lightning bolts, energy-draining, and rejuvenation.” He showed me the pages. I took a mental note.

_ Subsisto, auaugo,  _ _ industria vivae siccescendo, _ _ acritudo. _

I pulled Benny into a final hug before I got out of the car and went inside, Benny not far behind.

I walked inside to see Keaton and Ethan stuffing their faces with pepperoni pizza and popcorn. I smiled. It was nice to see Keaton eat without throwing a fit. Keaton was lying on Ethan’s lap with  _ Avatar: The Last Airbender  _ playing on the TV. Benny and I looked at each other and chuckled, joining them on the couch. 

Keaton dragged himself into a sitting position next to Ethan, leaving room for me and Benny. We sat next to each other and Keaton spoke. “I’m glad that all four of us are here. I’m going to ask a question. It may be the most important question I ever ask any of you.” The atmosphere became thick and dark. “What element would you all bend and why?”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and answered almost immediately. “Definitely air. I’m really humorous and joyful. In fact…  _ ozodonugonu.” _ A breeze ran through the room, ruffling Ethan and Benny’s hair.

“Hey,” Keaton exclaimed. “That’s my job!” He reached a hand up and ran it through Ethan’s hair. His head fell back onto Ethan’s shoulder. “As for me,” he insisted. “I’d be a waterbender. I’m adaptable and have a wide range of emotions.” Instead of casting a spell, he dipped his finger in a glass of water and flicked it on everyone. We all laughed and he pointed at Benny.

“Hmm.” Benny had to think. “I think I’d be a combustion bender because I’m passionate about things like fire, but I’m easily entertained like airbenders.”

We all looked at Ethan expectantly. “Well,” he said. “I think I’d be an earthbender. I’m grounded and stable.”

Keaton threw a piece of popcorn into Ethan’s mouth, which he barely caught with his tongue. Keaton picked up more popcorn and threw it at me. I opened my mouth and it bounced off of my top lip onto my lap. I picked it up and ate it, turning to see Benny opening his mouth for Keaton to throw a piece of popcorn. Keaton picked up a raw kernel and smiled. He threw the popcorn and muttered,  _ “Ignis.”  _ The kernel exploded into a fully grown piece of popcorn in the air which Benny caught in his mouth flawlessly. 

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “Benny, how’d you do that so well?”

Benny shrugged and offhandedly addressed the question. “I guess I’m just good with my mouth.”

Benny seemed perfectly calm but everyone else’s mouth was hanging open. “Benny,” Ethan shrieked. “What the hell!” He threw a handful of popcorn at Benny. Keaton and I laughed. It was nice to just sit and have fun with no threat to the world or our lives. I smiled and felt my eyes become heavy. I fell asleep on the couch.

I woke up to see a notification. Keaton had put a picture of me in the group chat. I was sleeping on Benny’s lap as Benny slept.

Keaton: Payback :)

I rolled my eyes and saw an individual text from Benny.

Benny: At the church. See you soon

I forced myself to get off the couch and threw together an outfit before running down to the church. When I got there, Benny was sitting on the ground blowing dandelions. When he looked up, he saw me and waved enthusiastically. I rolled my eyes and waved back, smiling.

_ Dork. _

Once I approached Benny, his smile faded. I creased my brow. “Benny, what’s wrong?” He suddenly wouldn’t look at me. “Benny,” I called, my voice sterner. “Look at me. Now.” His head snapped to attention. “Benny, if you don’t tell me what’s wrong, you know I’ll find out.”

Benny stared me in the eyes and kept his mouth shut.

I stared at him intensely, making note of the connection between his brain and vocal cords. I could sense that there was something he was keeping from me, I just had to get it out. “Benny, tell me,” I said, my voice no longer belonging to me, but to Themis.

I felt his voice being dragged out. He muttered, “I have ADHD and these spells take a lot of focus and I’m scared I won’t be able to cast them right.”

He glared at me, obviously pissed off.

I sat next to him, my voice normal. “Benny, is that all? Keaton’s attention-deficit too. We can head home and ask him for advice, okay?”

He nodded. “Okay.” He stood up and offered me a hand. I stood up and looked him in the eyes. We both leaned forward and finally, we kissed. It was a quick, awkward peck, but a kiss nonetheless. We both sat in the car, enduring the awkward silence during the drive to Ms. Weir’s house.


	12. Chapter 12: Rated T

Rory’s PoV

_ DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT ALL TO FUCKING HELL. _

I sat in my room, seething. I hadn’t left my room in about thirty hours, furious after learning that Jesse had cheated on me. The sunlight was peeking through my window, and I would’ve stayed if I didn’t have school. As I got ready for the day, I started to think to myself.

_ He said so many nice things. Were they all lies? He said to be more sure of myself… does that mean I shouldn’t be? Fuck you, Jesse. _

I got in the shower and felt the water hit me. I stood in the shower, then I sat down and cried.

_ Way to go, Rory. This is a new low. Sitting naked on the ground, crying in the shower. A+ self-esteem. _

I was finally able to force myself to wash and throw together a sloppy outfit of red flannel and jeans. I started the walk to school.

_ I can’t deal with this. I need something to cope. _

I saw the liquor store out of the corner of my eye.

_ Something to take the edge off. _

I looked around to make sure no one was around before super speeding into the store, grabbing a bottle of vodka, and leaving before the door even finished chiming. I stuffed the bottle into my backpack and continued the walk to school.

When I got to school, I bumped into Ethan and some guy he was walking with. I looked down and noticed they were holding hands.

“Hey, E!” I waved enthusiastically. “Who’s this? Is he your boyyyfrieeeeend?”

_ That’s it, Rory, just smile and wave. _

Ethan rolled his eyes and kissed the guy on the cheek. “This is Keaton, my boyfriend. Keaton this is Rory.” Keaton waved at me but kept glancing toward my backpack.

Keaton pulled Ethan into a hug and said, “You go ahead, Ethan. I’ll see you in second period.”

Ethan kissed him on the cheek again and walked away. Keaton pointed at my backpack and said some word. My backpack fell to the ground. He said some other words and the backpack slid over to him. He picked it up, opened it, looked inside, closed it, and grabbed me by the hand, dragging me away from school. He pulled me to the park and we sat down at a picnic table. He tossed me my backpack.

Before I could say anything, he held up a finger to shush me. “One, I know you’re a vampire. Two, I know Jesse cheated on you and I’m sorry, but he’s re-dead now. Finally, I saw the vodka in your backpack. Is this your first drink?” I nodded. “Okay, look. Hard vodka is definitely gonna be too much. If you planned to drink this whole bottle… well, you’re lucky you’re already dead. Wait, how did you die?”

I was finally able to speak. “Jesse broke my neck. And what makes you an expert?” Keaton looked me dead in the eyes while he opened the bottle with some more strange words and took a big gulp of the vodka. While he smirked, his eyes said something different. Something sadder.

I stared at him before grabbing the bottle. Keaton grabbed my hand. “Hey. I know you have vampire healing and all so it might take a little more for the alcohol to hit you. But be. Careful. Ethan would kill me if anything happened to you. I really don’t want to encourage you to drink anyway, but I’ve done it before so saying not to do it would make me a hypocrite.” I nodded my understanding before taking a cautious sip.

_ Ah, fuck this tastes horrible and it burns my throat. If I only had something wet to cool it with.  _

_ … Ohhhhhhhhhh. _

I took more and more sips until I had downed half of the bottle. Keaton took about four more big sips as I felt the alcohol start to hit me. I sighed. The vodka was so dry, but it… _felt_ _good._

_ I think I had a little too much. _

“S-so-so-so whoー uh, how did Iー er you meet Benー Ethan,” I asked, barely able to put my words together.

Keaton smiled. “Pizza guy fight.”

“Wha…?”

“There was a vampire pizza guy and Iー uh we fight him with Ethan, my boyfriend that you know.”

I started giggling. “Dude you’re soooo drunk.”

Keaton laughed. “Shut the fuck up and give me your phone number. I want you to be a part of Team Ass-kick.”

“Who?”

“I just made up the name right now but it’s me, Sarah, Benny, Ethan, my friend Natalya, meー oh shit I already said me.” He started laughing again. “And now you, you cool, son-of-a-bitch.”

I gave him my number and we continued our drunken antics.

“Okay, okay, okay,” I started. “Do you have any powers? And if you do, we gotta have a power contest.”

Keaton stuck his tongue out and stumbled onto his feet, ready for a contest. “You’re so on. For you, I won’t use any spells.”

I stood up and hugged him, halfway for affection, halfway for support. He chuckled. “Lightweight.”

“Okay, okay. Let me go first,” I insisted. I focused and extended my fangs.

Keaton pricked his finger on my fang. I noticed the blood that flowed from the wound was red, but also kind of shiny, like a ruby.

“Wait wait wait beforeー uh beforeー before you go. What’s up with yourー uhー fuck what’s the wordー your blood?”

Keaton held his finger over the still open bottle of vodka and let some of his ruby blood drip in it, before winking at me. “It’s mostly my blood, but some of it is the blood of Artemis and Apollo. It was just a drop at first, but the blood cells, uh, reproduced, then mixed with my normal blood cells, and now I’m kind of like a small god, in the sense that I have kind of god’s blood? That probably makes sense.” We both started to giggle, but I eyed the bottle of blood vodka. Keaton motioned to it and I took a sip. I immediately felt as sober as I’ve ever been. Keaton closed his eyes, and his brow furrowed with concentration before he walked over to me gracefully. “So, thanks for the good time,” he said, his slur gone. “We have to get back to school but I’ll see you around.”

_ Dammit, I was having fun. Wait, the scary thoughts are back? Shit, the scary thoughts are back. Keaton’s right though. I really should get back to class…  _

I dragged my feet as I started to head back to school.


	13. Chapter 13: Rated T

???

やっとアメリカに着きました。地獄を上げる時間 _(I've made it to America. Time to raise some hell.)_

Erica's PoV

Holy shit the nerds are going to re-kill me. Not only did I get Jesse to cheat on Rory and then join him in the battle, but I also didn't feel bad about it at all. I kicked some gravel that was on the way to my house and when I looked up, I saw something that looked almost like a monkey. It tilted its head, then said with my voice, “What if I'm in love with her?”

_What the fuck? I've never told anyone…_

I bared my fangs and tried to rush the monkey thing. It didn't even try to move, but it tilted its head and I heard a voice in my head. “やめる。去る。睡眠。

_(Stop. Leave. Sleep.)_ ” It was so... weird. Calm almost. I shook it off, watching the monkey… thing… skip away. I was so confused, but I guess I shouldn’t have been too frightened. I just turned into a fucking _vampire_ not that long ago. I looked around, but I couldn’t see where it went afterward. I shrugged it off, maybe it was a weird dream or hallucination or some shit like that. Why didn’t that _thing_ run from me? It didn’t even move... And it knew...

I tried to forget about it and continued to walk home. Maybe one of the nerds would know about it or something. What the _fuck_ was that thing? 

I woke up in my bed.

_Wait, wasn’t I supposed to go talk to the nerds? Holy shit, did I actually do what that monkey thing said?_

I got out of bed and cautiously walked to the house where I was supposed to babysit, looking around every so often to make sure there were no monkey things about.

When I got to the house, the short nerd answered the door. When he saw me, the door slammed in my face.

_Okay, I guess I should’ve expected that._

When the door opened again, someone I didn’t recognize was with the short nerd. He had brown skin and messy, curly hair. The short nerd whispered in his ear and he stared at me intently. I suddenly felt hot. My skin started to burn and the ground around me seemed brighter than the ground around them.

“So,” the short nerd said. “You don’t know me. My name is Ethan, and I’m a seer. I _saw you_ making Jesse cheat on my friend Rory, _in his own house.”_ The last four words were shouted. “This is my boyfriend, Keaton. He’s a warlock and one of his powers happens to be controlling sunlight. That includes the temperature. Based on how the steam is already rolling off of you, I give you about a minute and a half before the skin starts to burn off of your bones. Talk.”

I was shocked, to say the least. He had always seemed like the soft, quiet type. Apparently, he could be quite intimidating when he wanted to be.

I decided to talk. “I need help. Supernatural help. Some monkey thing attacked me and mind-controlled me and I think it might go after more people. I know what I did was wrong but I was just so excited to be a super hot vampire. Please, this concerns you too.” With every word, the heat on my skin decreased until it felt normal again.

Ethan glared at me. “You can’t come inside, but I’ll do some research and let you know what I find.” He turned to Keaton. “Can you make sure she stays here?”

Keaton kissed Ethan’s cheek. “Of course. Good luck.”

With that, Ethan walked up the stairs and out of sight. I could feel the intensity of Keaton’s stare as we waited. We waited for ten minutes. Twenty. Thirty.

Ethan ran back down the stairs. While he spoke, he never looked me in the eyes. “The closest thing I’ve found to what you mention is the _Satori_ from Japanese folklore. It’s a monkey-like creature that’s known for reading minds, but never controlling them. Maybe this one evolved or something? I don’t know, but there you have it. Your information. Since you’re such a great vampire now, you can take care of it. So leave.”

With that, the door was once again slammed in my face. I started to walk home, solemnly before I realized that there was someone who could still help me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're so sorry to announce that we're going on hiatus for school. We hope you all understand.


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